1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to web-based search engines, and relates more particularly to a search engine system and method having group-based searching capabilities.
2. Related Art
Internet search engines provide an indispensable service of locating relevant web sites for web users. Unfortunately, search results provided by modern search engines often include too many sites to efficiently sort through. Narrowing down the search results to return better quality and fewer sites is a daunting task, especially considering the great number of web sites that continue to be added to the web. To address this, technologies have been implemented to provide better search strategies, typically by better managing the large amount of data being searched.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,159, “Method and Apparatus for Expandable Biometric Searching,” issued on May 30, 2000 to Wilson et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a searching method that assigns data to a data group and then to a search engine. The result is a system for efficiently storing data in a large database so that it can be more easily matched using biometric data (e.g., fingerprints, facial shapes, etc.).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,576, “Defining a Uniform Subject Classification System Incorporating Document Management/Record Retention Functions,” issued on Feb. 6, 2001 to McIntosh, which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a technique for classifying documents by their subject in order to better manage the life cycle of each document.
While these disclosures provide improved mechanisms for managing and retrieving data, none provide end users with specific functions that will improve data searching, particularly when searching web pages on the internet.